The European Union turned up the pressure on Poland yesterday by giving it three months to address concerns about its controversial judicial reforms, in a move that was criticised in Warsaw as being questionable and “very premature”.
The two sides have been at loggerheads ever since Poland’s new conservative government introduced changes to the constitutional tribunal.
The country’s top court has found that the changes are unconstitutional, but the government refuses to recognise the ruling.
The European Commission believes that there is a “systemic threat” to the rule of law in Poland.
“The rule of law is one of the pillars of our union and it has great significance for everyone, including individual citizens, to be sure that you are protected by the law and that there are independent courts to look after your interests,” commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans told journalists in Brussels.
Yesterday the EU’s executive issued recommendations to Warsaw, taking the next step in an unprecedented inquiry it has launched into whether Poland is violating the bloc’s fundamental values.
As a last resort, it could seek to suspend Poland’s voting rights in the EU.
Warsaw had adapted the judicial reforms in a bid to appease Brussels, but critics and legal experts have said that the changes – which still have to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda – were insufficient and would still paralyse the court.
The commission found that “certain changes go in the right direction”, but also that “the fundamental concerns are still unresolved”, Timmermans said.
“This new law does not address the threat to the rule of law in Poland,” he noted. “Moreover, new problematic provisions have been introduced in the legislative process on the functioning of the tribunal.”
The court is being “prevented from fully ensuring an effective constitutional review”, which affects its “integrity, stability and proper functioning”, the commission said.
It called for Poland to take action “as a matter of urgency” and to provide information within three months on the steps taken.
The commission recommended that Warsaw for instance allow three judges nominated last year to take up their function; automatically publish the tribunal’s judgments; and ensure that the court can review the foreseen judicial changes.
However, yesterday the Polish foreign ministry called into question the commission’s actions.
“The [ministry] considers the measures taken by the European Commission ahead of the signing of the new bill on the constitutional tribunal into law to be very premature,” it said in a statement.
“They put the European Commission at risk of losing its authority,”
it added. “This decision raises questions about the European Commission’s adherence to the principle of sincere co-operation with the governments of the member states.”
Poland is “determined to restore stable foundations on which the constitutional tribunal functions”, the ministry said.
If the issue is not resolved to the commission’s satisfaction, it can resort to Article 7 of the EU treaty, which allows for certain rights of a member to be suspended, including voting rights in the council of the EU’s 28 member states.
This move, at times referred to as the “nuclear” option, has never been used against a member state.